Culture

Ballot Questions

Besides all the elective offices, there are three ballot questions that will be decided in Massachusetts tomorrow. I’ve made up my mind about two but am still struggling with the third. Question One -“Availability of Motor Vehicle Repair Information” – Full info on this question from the Secretary of State’s…

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Ernie Hebert, ‘Gatsby,’ & the Literary Knock on Working People, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2 pm

  Ernest Hebert: “How ‘The Great Gatsby’ Demeans Working People” Ernest Hebert’s most recent novel, NEVER BACK DOWN, tells the story of the life and loves of Jack Landry, a New England Franco-American working man. Hebert wrote his book as an answer to The GREAT GATSBY and DELIVERANCE, novels that…

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Turmoil

The web gives us disturbance, uproar, commotion, and confusion for synonyms of “turmoil”—words that fit both the weather forecast and political forecast. A storm is not really an outside force since we are in nature, but there’s a sense that something is coming to get us, to make trouble on…

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Dylan, Bono, & Kerouac

This is from Bob Dylan’s memoir “Chronicles: Volume One” (2004). Thanks to Jim Cook for the tip. We know all these guys by one name: Dylan, Bono, Kerouac, . . . and Cook. . “One night, Bono, the singer from U2, was over for dinner with some other friends. Spending…

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